Tutorial: Lightning bolt French tape mani

Hi guys, it's time for another tutorial! This time I will show you how to make the lightning bolt French. The design is very simple to achieve and perfect for covering up extreme tipwear or VNL (visible nail line). What you need is just a bit of regular office tape and a pretty, opaque layering polish to match your base color. Let's get started!

First apply your base color and let it dry completely. Or you can do this tutorial on an older mani, like I'm doing. On the picture I'm wearing Ms Jagger Green from Pieces that I applied the day before. As you can see there's a tiny bit of tipwear, but we're going to cover that up in a bit!

Now cut a little piece of tape off the roll, and then cut the piece in smaller strips lengthwise. You only need one strip per nail, so you can save the rest of the strips for your other fingers.
Also cut a bunch of triangle shaped pieces. First cut a piece off the roll, then cut it in half diagonally. Again, you only need one triangle per nail.
Then place one strip diagonally on your nail and make sure it's adhered perfectly on the surface.

This is the part where you need the triangle. Place it on top of the strip that you've place in step 2. Make sure one point of the triangle is pointing to the tip of your nail, like shown in the picture.

Now apply your top color. Of course you can pick any color you like, but personally I prefer contrasting colors so the pattern will really pop. And if you plan to cover up tipwear, make sure the layering polish is opaque enough.
When you're done polishing, immediately but carefully pull off the pieces of tape. My advise is to do the painting and removing of the strips on one nail at a time.

At last apply your topcoat, clean up and you're done. Striking! :P

Check out the tutorial page for some useful tips. Also I would love to see your attempt on my design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Polishes I used in this post are Pieces Ms Jagger Green and Color Club Where's The Soiree?.

I've been trying to do tape mani's-I think I'm starting to get the hang of it but I have one question...do you have to let the base color dry completely, or can you do it when it's a little wet? Thanks!

I'm a big fan of your blog and a super dork cuz I used this tutorial to make a Harry Potter themed mani... feast your eyes! http://pinupcherrymakeup.blogspot.com/2011/07/harry-potter-series-nail-edition_12.htmlYour tutorial made it incredibly easy, so thank you!!!! I look forward to more fun designs!

Hi I loved your tutorial! I tried it myself and the pictures are at http://ontothenextpolish.blogspot.com/2011/08/lightning-bolt-french-tape-nail-art.htmlThanks for creating an awesome tutorial! It was so easy to follow! I can't wait to do this design again.

I tried to do this mani a week ago but it was an epic fail. I'm not too patient, but I put my tape,I painted my nails and when I was going to pull off the tape,the nail polish peeled off too. I don't know what I did wrong.Any advice?

@Davinia: Hi Davinia, if your talking about the polish underneath the tape that comes off, it probably wasn't dry enough. So give it a bit more time or apply the polish a day before to make sure it's completely dry. If it's the layering polish that comes off with the tape, try to apply thinner layers and always remove the tape as soon as possible (meaning when the polish on top is still wet).The top coat I use is either Seche Vite or Sally Hansen Insta-Dry. SV dries quicker and glossier but can cause shrinkage, to prevent this you can wrap your tips with the topcoat as well. SH is great too, it dries slightly slower than SV, but I like the thin formula, plus it doesn't cause shrinkage and doesn't get thick as fast as SV.I hope these tips were helpful and don't forget, practice makes perfect! ;-)

@Rissa: What a bold color combo, LOVE it! The glitter you added really completes it :)

@Anonymous: Thank you! And oooh, I think all bold colors look great on darker skin ^^ Something that usually works for me is to pick one color you like, then pick a color in the same hue but lighter or darker (ton-sur-ton) and for your final polish pick a completely different color that still shares the same color scheme.

@J: You're welcome, and what a cute mani you made! I'm in love with the subtlety ^^

Hi Jane! Thanks for the tutorial - I had a bit of trouble with the placement of the triangle but re-did it and got it right. Here is the finished result!http://cocomotion.onsugar.com/Earth-Day-2012-Green-Files---Lightning-Strikes-China-Glaze-Agro-22146596

I want to try the double lightning bolt next! Ultimate goal is to do the Explosion nails!

It's not necessary unless you find it to take to long to dry, in that case you can use a fastdrying topcoat (I use Seche Vite) to speed things up. But a normal topcoat before the tip is definitely not required, in fact it will only make the drying slower!